The First of June

On the one hand I've been lazy with blogging this weekend, but have seen five bands attended two gigs, seen a few friends, been to a Steampunk Fair seen a demonstration cum lecture on dueling and  now written two posts on Spoongig.

Some of the costumes I've seen have been amazing, and I was quite surprised to come out of the Sick'n'Beautiful gig on Friday with no apparent detriment to my hearing. The bands, especially Bad Pollyanna were very loud and heavy.

Then I enjoyed some dark folk at the new Star and Shadow on Saturday, and have made a good start to walking for the month of June.

I was listening to "The Yes Album" and it still sounds wonderful although the actual lyrics make very litlesense in their attempt to be confusingly meaningful , beut that album is still one of my favourites with some great keyboard power chords from Tony Kaye. The opener "Yours Is No Disgrace" just hits me with that massive guitar sound , and that "starship Trooper" and "Perpetual Change" make the album. The only duffer on the album is "A Venture" but you are fine listening to it because you know what is coming next.

Steve Howe's "The Clap" is and impressive live guitar instrumental, and "Your Move"  contains some of the only sensible lyrics on the album when the band appropriate John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance". I've include "Yours Is No Disgrace" from "Yessongs", it's all about the music, some good images but sometimes their lyrics can be almost painful.

Anyway time for bed now, hope you had a good one too.

The Nightmare of Existence

I switched on the radio (6Music obviously) and John Hilcock was  "Frontier Man" by Gruff Rhys and the first line I heard I took as the title of this post.

Yesterday evening was spent in A&E at the RVI being seen by an excellent doctor who reassured me that I was suffer4ing from a major muscle pull in my left upper arm. It does feel like my who shoulder joint has been massively bruised, it's fine at rest but hurts when I try to raise my arm. So it's a case of painkillers and hoping it does get better. I always believe if there is pain it's a sign that something is amiss and needs to be dealt with, which is why I went to A&E last night after work as it had been getting worse over the weekend.

I'm sorry this is a boring post as I have nothing newsworthy to say, although this week I have two upcoming gigs Bad Pollyanna on Friday and "Always A Star, Never A Shadow" on Saturday so lots to look forward to.

Anyway this week on the walks I have been listening to Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" and I've also watched the film "Hawking" so naturally it's got to be be"Keep Talking" from that album. To often we find it easier to not talk that to make the effort and meet people and talk. At the very least you can pick up the phone and talk to someone.

So that's the thought or thing to do today:

KEEP TALKING

800

800 Up

This is my 800th post. It's taken a few years to get here and will probably be next year when I hit 1000. Again I didn't know what this blog would turn out like , or whether I would keep on writing , but it's a sort of diary and helps me remember things. The original idea was a travel related blog hence the name "Seven Days In" although it could have been read (and has been by many) as "Seven Day Sin" which could imply much more fun depending of the nature of the sin.

S.O.P.H.I.E.

I do believe that life should be fun, and people who look for faults in everyday life must lead a very sad existence. I tend to expect the best from people and situations , and never get mad at anyone or anything , just exasperated, although I have no time at all for bullies which is why I am mightily impressed with coming into contact with Bad Pollyanna who support the extremely worth Sophie Lancaster Foundation. I didn't know what I was going to write about in this blog , apart from the fact that it was number 800 (I also have a theme for number 801). If you download the song Invincible Girl by Bad Pollyanna you will help support the foundation and that is a brilliant thing to do to combat bullying and promote acceptance. It's also available here on itunes.

Anyway it's Sunday afternoon and still a nice day.

By the way thanks to all my friends concerned about the cirrhosis of my liver. If I hadn't been on a trial I wouldn't have known about it , and if I didn't know about it I couldn't take the required action (which is essential 6 months ultrasound scans and the odd other camera based intrusion) but I am totally fine with it. If there is something wrong it's good to know because then you can actually do something about it, problems occur when you don't know. I have a lot to look forward to and I am going to enjoy it including seeing my daughters this week, trying out a couple of new bars and cafes , and seeing two of my heroes Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick gracing a stage I've dis(graced) myself several times at the Tyneside Irish Centre.

So go on, Enjoy Yourself , I certainly will!

Never Stop

Never Stop Having Fun

Well the last two weeks and the next two weeks for me have been and will be almost non stop. This is not a bad thing although time flies by and disappears as you try and fit everything in. Due to holidays at work we've only had half a team in, but everyone's working extra hard to make sure all runs smoothly and it's actually a pleasure to be in working with the girls and guys, who are absolutely excellent,  supportive with problems and helpful whenever you need them.

There's things we need to do before the bank holiday and I have a day and a half in hospital in the middle of it (tomorrow and Tuesday), I could have done without the overnight stay which they say is because of the ITP but they are just covering themselves and not too arsey so I'll go along with it. As I continually say the NHS is brilliant and hopefully I'll be able to play the guitar properly after the op, which would be amazing as I've never been able to play it before.

Also I am to blame for some of this time congestion as I've also fit in gigs by the Star Spangled Chestwigs, Penetration , Culture (tonight) and Bad Pollyanna (on Friday), so the latish nights are my own fault really, but wouldn't miss them for the world.

And this si one of the things about having fun and being positive, life is much better when you do things , and even better when you do things you enjoy , and even better when you do things you enjoy with friends and people you like like and love. Like I was out seeing friends on Friday and that was fantastic Paul , Fiona , Sarah , Colin  and Graham are fantastic company any day of the week, and that's just five people I'm lucky enough to have in my life.

Today I still have lots to do, but the sun is shining and the wind is blowing but that is fine, no rain at the moment. I know this week I will see many more friends, and have lots of fun , and have the odd moment where I think "I need to sleep" , but really I'd rather be doing something and enjoying myself.

The title is taken from and Echo and the Bunnymen track, so have a brilliant day everybody, my weekend is nowhere near finished and I hope yours isn't either , wherever in the world you are. Keep on smiling

Sunshirony, Bad Pollyanna and The NHS

Yes it's a made up word , but the sun outside is gorgeous and tonight I'm on a solo flight to see three Goth bands including the wonderful Bad Pollyanna  at Think Tank in Newcastle. I didn't realise they were from this sceptered isle!  I'd originally planned to get there about 9 , but the band posted on Facebook that they were coming on at 7:15 so lucky I checked  and thank you for that Bad Pollyanna.

This week has been absolutely mental and I didn't know whether I would get through today in one piece or without causing major damage, but I think that workwise it has come through fairly successfully working with some really nice people, despite being at home.

My liver biopsy has been postponed because I didn't notice that really important point on page five of the letter that I was sent (I should have stopped taking aspirin at the start of the week) , hopefully I will remember for any other similar things , but thank God I can have a little moan about that , rather than being in the USA and wondering if I can afford it. Michael Moore's Sicko is a very worrying piece but one you should watch. This is what the Tories want in this country, they are trying to destroy the NHS by outsourcing services to their cronies who bleed the NHS and then the government tells us that we cant afford so we have to privatise it. Rant over, have a great night , the weekend starts here